Monthly Archives: February 2008

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Some Pictures

February 27, 2008 – 3:47 pm

Just a reason why the 70-200 is a must have. And this isn’t even the f/2.8 people! Sweet glass.

I went outside with the dogs (okay, just Jack since Daisy doesn’t like the daylight - she’s a vampire secretly). The ground is soaking wet through and through so I couldn’t walk out in it much or I was sinking. YUCK. I’m ready for it to dry up and warm up dang it!

So, snapped a few of Jack:

And another that I played with the Lab Color mode in Photoshop on - love how it helped warm up the dead grass!

Much Love,

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Photography Talk

February 27, 2008 – 12:04 pm

So, I had to get out this morning to the UPS store and Office Depot but I’ll spare you the “life in my own hands when driving in the middle of the day with idiots on their cell phones” sagas.

This weekend is Harrison’s Hope Charity Auction - and I’ll share more on Harrison and the non-profit a little later, but for now, wanted to share that I’m photographing this event on Saturday. Very excited to do this as I really do enjoy events and parties.

My brother is coming to shoot with me and with that means, I needed to rent some more equipment. I know I need to start investing in “second sets” of things but just haven’t yet. I need to get my “needs” for myself first. Luckily, I have two other cameras (a 20D and a DRebel) for backups and he shoots with my 20D.

Renting is a smart way of trying out things or covering your butt during events and weddings. So, I rented from www.borrowlenses.com and am quite pleased with the equipment and turnaround. The price wasn’t too shabby either.

Crappy photo with my 20D that I haven’t really inspected and prepared just yet for the shoot - I can tell I love my full frame much better! LOL

Anyway, I have a zoom that is a 28-135 mm on the 20D right now and so, Jake will use it. This should be fine for him. So, I rented a 70-200 mm L (but opted for the f/4 IS) and I honestly felt it was a better fit for me as I’ll be using flash that evening and don’t really need the better L version of it. Besides, I may buy this lens and get rid of the 28-135 mm. Speaking of lenses, that leaves me to use the wide and 50 mm throughout the event as needed for fun shots and such.

Then, I also rented an extra Speedlight. I have a 550 which isn’t made anymore so I rented the 580 EX. Nice - this way we both have a flash. I need to purchase this when I can afford to so I’ll have two options. As a side note, I did buy these (2 of them) as I really need to have more power during longer shoots. I’m all for investing in prolonging the life of my batteries!

And, for shits and giggles, I rented a battery grip for my 5D (pictured above). I wanted to try it and see how lovely it really is. And, it is. I want one bad! My batteries are fine on the camera, but the grip is truly amazing. LOVE IT. Someday.

So, the three pieces I rented for one full week, plus shipping back and forth was about $170. Not too bad and I recommend doing that till you can afford to buy equipment. If I start doing more events and weddings I will just have to purchase these things as it will be more cost effective anyway.

I also wanted to mention that I use a Lightsphere for my 550 Speedlight, but went ahead and got a Demb Flip It so it will fit the 580 I rented and then I’ll have two options for filtering my light. That arrived today and I am excited to use it.

Equipment really is expensive and yet necessary to the business I run. I really can pride myself on not racking up credit card bills or taking out loans to finance my photography business. I do what I can to just use what’s in the bank - allowing my customers to pay for my equipment. That just means to learn more patience and practice that when it comes time to buying new things to add on.

Now, who wants to hire me? HA HA

Here’s a video clip about the Photoshop Fun area of my site and there is a new tutorial posted on sorting photos using Adobe Bridge CS3. (woops - uploaded a squished version!!! LOL will fix that).

Much Love,

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Winter Weather

February 26, 2008 – 12:30 pm

Well, it’s snowing again - though it’s blowing so hard out there that it won’t stay around. In fact, we have a “snow blowing” advisory out right now. This is definitely the most active winter I’ve seen in a while. With more frequent snow. My tires aren’t the greatest right now and that makes driving in this stuff not the best situation. The tread is fine, but they aren’t holding air like they probably should. In fact, the other day I went to Mobil to fill them only to find that they  have this new air pump. You have to pay 75 cents to get air for starters (AIR!!) and then you have to enter in a PSI on it and measure your tire with that…THEN you can pump air. I have no clue what I was doing and pretty much wasted 75 cents. And, my tires still look pretty low. Guess I’ll have my brother try it for me this weekend.

Meanwhile - enjoying being indoors today and not having to be out in that mess…eating some lovely Lorna Doones. Oh they are the best 100 calorie snack!

No, I didn’t go to WW last night. Ugh, what is with me????

Much Love,

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My Coffee Obsession

February 26, 2008 – 10:16 am

I don’t know when it really started. I mean, I wasn’t always a coffee drinker. Yesterday, I didn’t make coffee because I was busy getting ready to get the kiddos to the vet’s and then to get my nails filled. By the time I knew it we were in the early evening hours. Yet, before I knew it again, I was hitting up Starbucks for a fix before the grocery store.

I like to collect Starbucks mugs - though I don’t have a lot. This was given to me by Lauren and I really do love it. It’s so sweet. I call this photo: coffee amongst chaos! I often get asked about what I process my images with and when it’s just a onesy or twosey photo I use camera raw in Photoshop. Usually, I just adjust for exposure and contrast. But, sometimes when I want to get artsy I’ll run through my collection of ACR presets. This time, I used one from my Vintage collection. I created them for both ACR and Lightroom. Sometimes they work great on a photo and other times not so great. I like how this one turned out.

Much Love,

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By Holly | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | Comments (14)

Awww, thanks.

February 25, 2008 – 10:44 pm

You get it - I appreciate it. It was very heartwarming. I even received sympathy cards in the mail from the vet’s office and from Andrea’s sister (who is in Vet school at Mizzou). So sweet.

I finally packaged up my giveaway stuff from before and it’s going out tomorrow. I’m sure that the winners will be glad that they are finally getting their goods. However, I forgot about the “Love Jar” and didn’t think about how I would split that prize up. So, it’s sitting here for a future giveaway. Sometimes my fingers get to moving before my brain does.

Lately I’ve had a lot of photography “stuff” on the brain. Things about how to grow my business, where my focus should be within the company, and how to stay afloat. It’s a daunting task and the struggle to focus on me and my own thing is hard when I am stalking other photographers and seeing their success or how they are doing things. I tend to want to jump on the band wagon and do it like they did. But, it’s really not an overnight thing. I constantly struggle with myself reminding me that it’s about patience and learning and giving what you can at the moment. It isn’t about always having the best equipment right then and now. I look at my vision board and see stuff that I “want” and realize I can do perfectly fine with what I have now. I feel jealous when I see other photographers can afford this expensive seminars - but then I remind myself that it just isn’t in my cards right now. But, I still have others to grow from like in my private Pink Ink forums for photographers. So, why am I writing this? Just to let you know that it isn’t all rosey.

It just “is” and sometimes that’s okay too.

Much Love,

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By Holly | Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (9)